Royals humbled

This was supposed to be the breakout season that fans in Kansas City had been waiting forever for, and for the first 27 games of the season, that prospect seemed like a distinct possibility. However, after a 17-10 start, their best early effort in recent history, the upstart Royals have faltered, winning just four of their previous 16 games. Whether or not this is just a bump in the road for a young KC team ready to rip it up is a question that will need more time to answer, but for now, the Royals have reverted to their doormat status, recently dropping four straight one-run games, including a sweep at the hands of the Oakland A's and a pair of losses to the lowly Astros.

Veteran outfielder Jeff Francoeur told mlb.com:

"At Spring Training, Ned [manager Yost] said you're going to hit a couple of rough patches. This is obviously our first big rough patch. The key is to get out of it as fast as we can as a team offensively."

Frenchy has been an enigma since his Atlanta days, regularly posting some ungodly on base percentages - he's at .264, which will surprise no one. More frustrating to watch has been their youthful tandem of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, who lie at the core of an offense that's shaking at the knees, struggling to put up runs.

Moustakas has been seen as a can't miss player for some time, but that's all he's been doing lately - his sub-.200 batting average has plummeted nearly 50 points in just 12 days thanks to an extended slump. It's something the Royals' face-of-the-franchise and fellow third baseman George Brett knows a thing or two about.

"We all know what he's capable of doing," the Royals Hall-of-Famer told the Kansas City Star. "But I just think he has to relax, see the ball and hit it. Breathe, smile, have fun. The game's no fun when you're on a one for 34."

The Kansas City Star points out that Brett struggled as a young prospect, taking a .205 average into the All-Star break before coming around in the second half of the season, something that Moustakas can take solace in, even if the 23-year old has already experienced success in the Bigs, hitting 20 jacks last season. Still, he needs to show progress sooner rather than later in order to become an anchor of KC's lineup as was expected.

Meanwhile, Hosmer has just one home run in a position where power is mostly seen as mandatory - first base. As a rookie in 2011, Hosmer hit 19 homers and slugged close to .800, but that pop fizzed somewhat last season and has been non-existent this time out. There are other holes on the team including second base, a position that the Royals have failed to fill adequately in at least 20 years - Chris Getz has completely fallen off the shelf since his strong start. All these struggles with the bats come in a season in which their pitching has come to fruition, with James Shields, the reclamation of Jeremy Guthrie and Ervin Santana leading the way. Even Luke Hochevar, a total bust as a starter, has found a home in the pen, and so all these Royals need to compete are a few runs.

On Tuesday, they got some. Staring a second straight defeat to the Astros in the face, the Royals rallied from three runs down, busting out for seven runs in the late innings. Moustakas came through with the key hit, a bases loaded single that snapped that four-game losing streak. They had momentum, but only for an evening. On Wednesday the Royals were back to their losing ways, dropping yet another game to Houston, putting just a single run on the board against one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball.

Pitchers' mistakes wind up in the lake

The Cleveland Indians, who came into 2013 with a new manager, a handful of new recruits and slightly higher expectations than a season ago had just suffered their latest defeat - a 9-0 beating by their AL Central rivals, the Kansas City Royals, in the first game of a late April doubleheader. Pitcher Justin Masterson had struck out nine, but that didn't begin to make up for his seven run shellacking. Still, Masterson had enjoyed a solid start to the year, and Cleveland's offense was of much greater concern - they'd scored three or fewer runs in 14 of their first 21 games during which they posted an 8-13 record.

"We're trying to get things rocking. It's still early. We're 21 games in. It's obviously not the start we wanted. But hey, that's going to happen, bro. We're going through some growing pains right now, and we need to figure this out and turn it around."

Sometime in between those two games at Kauffman Stadium the Indians figured it out and began tearing up baseball. Cleveland have won 18 of their previous 24 games thanks to a ferocious power surge during which they've averaged close to six runs a contest. In their first 21 games Cleveland averaged 1.16 home runs a game, and since that nightcap in KC the Indians have hit 36 homers or 1.5 per game. Infielder/DH Mark Reynolds has led the way with 12 big flies, while virtually every player in Cleveland's lineup is capable of hitting the ball out of the park - from catcher Carlos Santana who has hit eight out, to a part timer like Yan Gomes who has five dingers in just 18 games. Perhaps the most impressive number coming out of Cleveland's first quarter of the season is seven - that's how many former Cy Young Award winners their bats have beaten to a pulp. Now, if manager Terry Francona can rustle up some starting pitching to join starters Masterson, the young Zach McCallister and a lethal bullpen that's putting up some of the strongest numbers in the AL, perhaps they'll be able to do what the White Sox couldn't do in their surprise season of 2012 - hold off the Detroit Tigers.

A pastry pasting

On Monday it emerged that Cuban pastries may have been responsible for Aroldis Chapman's ninth inning meltdown a day earlier in the Reds defeat to Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. The Phils Spanish-language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told local radio that he had bought 100 of the sweet treats to the Holguin born hurler, discovering before the game that around 18 of them were gone. Hours later, Fredie Galvas and Erik Kratz had taken Chapman deep back-to-back in a surprise 3-2 walkoff Phillies win. Apparently Ricardo likes to visit a Cuban bakery in Union, New Jersey to buy specialty pastries that feature a "flaky-crust ... with cream cheese and guava and it's baked, and it's absolutely delicious," to give to Cuban ballplayers from around the league.

"Now, if you eat more than two of these you're clogging up your arteries -- you're a stroke waiting to happen," Ricardo said on 94WIP radio, adding that the pastries are the "equivalent of the Krispy Kreme donuts when they come right out of the oven, it's that kind of a thing."

"That has nothing to do with what he did. Look at him -- does he look fat? I don't pay any attention to that.... Sometimes that locker room is too open for everybody, which makes it too open for alibis and excuses if something happens."

While chewing on "pastry gate" with my friend David Travers, he summed up what a good humored Dusty might have said in response to the affair:

"Sorry Dusty, you may be a good manager, but you're a lousy comedian. If he would have said something like "Tell Ricardo to buy 300 for Ryan Howard next time we are in town" then that would have made me your fan for life - opportunity missed."

NL gets a Pat down

Any baseball fans who either hadn't caught (desert) wind of the Patrick Corbin show taking place out in Arizona or ignored it altogether can do so no longer, certainly not after his latest feat. Taking on the Rockies in Coors Field, the second year Diamondbacks hurler threw a three-hit complete game, baffling Rockies hitters, while taming a ballpark that is back to being a pitchers' nightmare. Colorado Communications/Public Relations man, Jay Alves, told the Guardian that the Rox hadn't seen a slider like that in a long time. Todd Helton went further than that, saying that it's the best slider he's ever seen in his life, and that comes from a player who faced another D'Back, future Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson, regularly.

Speaking of the Big Unit, Corbin's victory in the Mile High City means that he joins Johnson as the first D'Backs pitcher to start a season with seven straight victories - a run that's only just starting to garner headlines outside of Phoenix. Corbin hasn't gone fewer than six innings in each start and given up a grand total of 10 earned runs in nine appearances for an ERA of 1.44, helping Arizona to a strong start in the NL West, and is up there with the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Matt Harvey as the top pitchers in baseball right now - quite a jump from his mediocre rookie season. He's certainly finding his feet after years of working on his game - the lefty from Clay, New York, recently told AZcentral.com that he didn't even begin focusing on pitching until his junior year of high school.

"I feel like when I was drafted I was still growing into my body," Corbin said. "I always knew that the bigger I got, the harder I would throw. I always thought that. I don't know if that's what (scouts) thought."

Odds are scouts didn't think much, considering that his own organization saw him as a back-of-the-rotation starter, which is exactly what he showed last year going 6-8 with a 4.54 ERA.

Now he's jumped into the mix as a possible starter for the NL at the All-Star Game in July despite playing at Chase Field, which, like Coors, is no bowl of cherries for pitchers.

"I think in the spring, I came in with the same mind-set that I have now. I wanted to go out there and make sure I was ready for every start. I try to go out there and pound the strike zone, and so far I've been able to do that. I know there are a lot of starts left, and I just want to make sure that I can keep it going."

Je me souviens

Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who starred for the Montreal Expos for 12 seasons and who died of brain cancer in February of 2012, had a street named after him on Monday near the site of Stade Parc Jarry, where the 1969 expansion team first played upon entry into the National League. It's the latest baseball murmur coming out of a city that lost its team after the 2004 season to Washington D.C. after a long decline that featured a number of culprits, ultimately leading to the demise of baseball's first entry outside of the United States. Former Expos outfielder Warren Cromartie announced earlier this year that he is leading the Montreal Baseball Project and conducting feasibility study on whether or not the city with a metropolitan area population approaching four million people could support a Major League Baseball team again.

There are two teams still seeking a new stadium, Tampa Bay and Oakland, and at least in theory, they are a threat to move. The Rays are suffering in the attendance department much like the Expos did as the situation spiraled in Montreal, but have a lease with the city of St Petersburg that expires in 2025 and is so tight it prevents the team discussing a franchise move with other cities. Oakland would have an easier time leaving town, although their ownership have had their eye on San Jose as a future home for some time, with baseball failing to come to a resolution regarding the Giants rights to the territory.

Landing a new team is the longest of longshots, especially without stadium funding in place. Still, it is still not 100% out of the question. As for whether or not baseball could work again in the city, just take a look at the success of the Giants, a team that was close to abandoning San Francisco for Tampa in 1992 after averaging less than 20,000 fans per game. Over 20 years later, baseball couldn't imagine a league without one of the strongest franchises playing in one of its most beloved ballparks. There's an argument that Montreal is more than capable of duplicating their achievement, and there are a few souls in Quebec still fighting for a second chance to prove it.

NYY + MCFC = NYCFC

With Manchester City and the New York Yankees joining forces to create NYCFC, the MLS' 20th team and second club in the New York metropolitan area, reports have surfaced that the Blues would open up their doors at the Etihad Stadium to the Bronx Bombers. Major League Baseball has been playing both exhibition games and regular season contests oversees for some time, but have yet to test the waters in Europe. Over the years MLB International always considered The Oval to be the preferred site of any games taking place in the UK, but with the new partnership between two of the biggest clubs in their respective sports, perhaps the north of England is where baseball will finally land in Europe, although details and practicalities concerning just how a baseball diamond would be carved out of the ground have yet to be discussed. More realistically, Holland seems the ideal place for MLB to make it's trans-atlantic debut, with the new Hoofddorp Stadium opening up in March of 2014 that could cater 30,000 fans with temporary seating.